#VIA Rail

[annapolisrose]

Saskatchewan prairie views.

[transit-fag]

hey so first off love what you're doing with the place, secondly I know it may be a little outta your knowledge base and I could probably just google it but do you know what the passenger rail situation is like in Canada? I've never heard anything about it up here but being not able to drive was super dismayed when the greyhound services shut down in western Canada a few years ago. Rail is just better!

Sadly the passenger rail situation is worse in Canada than the US, they check your bags. But here is a map

[walrusmagazine]

The Diminishing Romance of Train Travel

I took a sleeper train across the country. I learned Via Rail is still stuck in the twentieth century

Coach is a land-based version of steerage: in this section of the train, aside from one or two sixty-two-seat cars, there’s a combination modest cafe and dome car; that’s about it. Then, there are the “Sleeper Plus” options: in ascending order, upper and lower berths, cabins for one or two, and bigger configurations like “drawing rooms.” I can remember, on those long-ago family trips, peeking through open doors at these spaces, which seemed the epitome of opulence compared to our berths. There’s a shower on each Sleeper Plus car, and all these options include meals (prime rib, lake trout . . . ). By contrast, economy choices are described, ominously, as “wholesome and comforting,” code for packets of nuts and microwaved cheeseburgers.

Read more at thewalrus.ca.

Illustration by Jonathan Dyck (jonathandyck.com)

[bucktransit]

Cobourg, Ontario VIA Rail intercity train station. Photo by the green buck.

[i-rate-trains-in-posts]

Hello, I am Ryan and I will be rating the trains in posts. Tag me if you see a train.

[20th-century-railroading]

"Via extra West"

We find a VIA Rail extra west arriving at London, Ontario with a pair of FPA4's, the 6760 has lost the engineer side flag off the wooden staff, the entire flag blown off on the fireman side. This train is on a positioning move for a scheduled eastbound London to Toronto run in a hour or so - May 27, 1979.

[twiggybeing]

The 401 highway in Canada has the most traffic out of any road or highway in all of north America.

Because of this traffic, the average speed can drop to a stand still.

If Canada had high speed rail that took a similar route, it would be abled to transport people from different cities to Toronto's city center over 4 times faster.

The amount of cars this would take off the road would significantly reduce traffic, which would also make driving safer and faster.

The amount of time it takes to drive from Toronto to Vancouver with little to no traffic would be 41 hours of driving. If there was a cross country high speed railway that time could be cut down to less than 10 hours using the fastest German trains.

The upkeep costs for rail compared to that of highways are also much lower, and with bringing less cars into a city, it would need less subsidized parking lots which don't pay real estate tax, nor do they make room for businesses or housing.

[the-city-in-mind]

Amtrak and VIA Rail are discussing extending the Chicago-Detroit ‘Wolverine’ line to Toronto’s Union Station, using the Detroit River Tunnel!

This would be awesome as it would then become a gateway for train travel from Chicago to Montreal and Quebec City. (It’d be nice if there was a new direct QC City-MTL-OTT-TO-Detroit-Chicago express line!)

[trainx8819]

Via Rails New Fleet is Now Running on Trains 71 and 76! Here’s a video of Train 71 heading to Windsor in the early morning of October 12th

[viarailblog]

Genuinely believe that our older paintscheme (first photo, the yellow and blue one) looked better than whatever the heck this is

[givetheanarchistthecig]

Trains at night

[annapolisrose]

Behind the trees.... Mount Robson

[aryburn-trains]

Busy Sunday afternoon at Spadina, Entertainment provided the S-13's, a plenty... CN 8518 pushing a string of blue coaches through the wash and another S-13 has a Tempo generator – baggage in tow... and 8515 is working the AMTRAK F40PHR #280 with the Maple Leaf consist CN Spadina coach yard, September 30, 1984 Kodachrome by S.Danko Noteworthy: from the right, in the coach yard, two more S-13's, LRC cars, Tempo cars, in the distance Budd Cars, what appears to be a Track Inspection Car or Rail Grinder, a regular tail end feature of the seventies Super Continental: CN 'car-go-rail' enclosed auto carrier, and the nearly new rail grade separation line.

[legionnaireslover]

And We're Off!

So our New Zealand adventure begins! Today train to Toronto and overnight in the airport terminal hotel. Tomorrow afternoon we fly out to Vancouver.

[bucktransit]

Cobourg VIA Rail intercity train station. Photo by the green buck.

[pennanbrae]

The tracks at sunset.